Mosque leaders call Jews “brothers”, ask for calm

A Mosque at the Aelbrechtsplein in Rotterdam. Source: Wikimedia/Michielverbeek

Mosques in The Netherlands are worried about rising tensions between religious groups. For this reason, the Council of Mosques and the Union of Moroccan Mosques Netherlands are calling for tolerance against Jewish “brothers of the holy book”, Elsevier reports.

The organizations say that mosques will be speaking to religious groups in the coming time in an effort to stem the race hate incidents that are increasingly happening.

The Council of Mosques is a coalition of prominent Turkish mosques, it is now taking distance from muslim youths who are guilty of anti-Semitic incidents.

A spokesperson for the Islamic organizations says that this is not about freedom of speech, which the mosques agree with, but more about a social cohesion that is currently unhealthy. According to the spokesperson, all mosques in The Netherlands are in agreement about a course of action that will speak to a relationship of brotherhood between Islam and Judaism, the Qur’an and the Torah.